Monday, July 27, 2009

After coming to terms with the fact that three giant drawers of sock yarn were not going to fit into the new dental cabinet, I mulled it over for a few days, and then came up with a new plan.

The jelly cabinet in the living room is now the new home for all fiber, yarn remnants/scraps and the yarn needed to finish any works in progress (plus the doomed sweater that I started for Nathan but never finished due to the SWEATER CURSE that I blame for our breakup). The top drawers of the dentist cabinet became the new home for needles. One drawer for bamboo. One for metal. The old needle home - the bottom drawer of the antique sewing cabinet - now houses my small stash of lace weight yarn. In the bottom few drawers of the dental cabinet - I carefully arranged all of my unfinished projects. The big bottom drawer for sweaters (4 of them. OUCH) and the drawers above that for smaller things - socks, scarves, hats, etc. Most of the sock yarn went back into the three original drawers but I made one special drawer for self-striping/self-patterning sock yarns, and one drawer for my name-brand lovelies (Colinette Jitterbug, Koigu, Shibui, Malabrigo, blah blah).

All in all - I feel successful in my rearranging and using the dentist cabinet for things that suit it's limited drawer space/size. Plus I got to fondle all my yarn which always makes me extra happy.

I've been meaning to do a big WIPs post to expose my shamefully large pile of unfinished project to the world. Maybe I'll do that tonight...

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Am facing the fact that the drawers on my new dental cabinet are actually quite shallow and small. It looks like my original plan - to move 3 huge drawers of sock yarn into the dental cabinet - just isn't going to work. No way. Am sorting through my stash in my head - thinking of another solution. Maybe use some of the smaller drawers for needles/notions and some of the bigger drawers for works in progress & their associated yarn. Really not sure but my brain is working working working, like a game of yarn tetris.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Ok, I admit it... I was totally out of space for yarn/fiber storage. I filled up the 3 large drawers and 2 side storage areas in the china cabinet, and the truck box "coffee table" is stuffed to the brim.

I was faced with a pile of new sock yarn that had no home. Uh oh!

I don't have a lot of room - especially in the dining/craft room that already has the built-in china cabinet, a huge armoir, a bookcase and the dinette/chairs. So a buffet, sideboard or even a cool old vanity just wasn't going to work. I got it into my head that I wanted a vintage/antique piece that had a zillion drawers of various sizes. I did a bunch of research - looked at tall/thin highboys and lingerie chests - and finally decided that I wanted an antique dental/medical or spool cabinet. I was also inspired by the art deco dental cabinets that Nikol has in Harveyville, and wanted something that would fit in with my existing antiques and the age of the house (1935).

I looked and looked and looked. Old oak dental/medical cabinets are incredibly beautiful but also incredibly expensive. I was able to locate a bunch of very cool art deco dental cabinets on eBay but there were all in CA and had no delivery options so I started stalking local antique stores. At one store the proprietor suggested that I go to the City-Wide Garage sale that weekend so I wandered over after a brunch date on Sunday morning.

One vendor had both an old oak dental cabinet that was $2500+:and, luckily, an art deco cabinet that was exactly what I wanted:

It was a few hundred dollars more than I wanted to spend but I knew I would regret it greatly if I didn't buy it, so I haggeled a slightly lower price (still way more than I wanted to spend) and took it home with me.

I found the worklist inside which marks it's age at 1942 and also found this trapped along the back wall. Very cool.

I'll post photos of it in it's new home later today. I think it'll be full of sock yarn by the end of the week. Mmmmm... sock yarn!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

I'm knitting two new pairs of socks. One for me, one for CWS. They are nestled together in their little project bag.

The green pair are for me. They are Spring Forward socks in Dream in Color Smooshy (colorway: Happy Forest). And the blue pair are for CWS. They are based on the Simple Trekking Socks by MimiKnits and are being knit in Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Damson. (MimiKnits is also responsible for both the Icarus & Seraphim shawls.)

Summer is the perfect sock knitting time. Socks are portable and small, and they don't lay across you lap like a hot dog. I love knitting socks.